Wow. Is Apple getting nice?

In the wake of Apple's WWDC announcements this week, a factor manifested itself that was quite unexpected.

Unexpected because Apple, in a rather unprecedented move, told everyone what to expect before the announcements - at least, it said what the announcements would be about. Among the unexpected items, apart from Apple CEO Steve Jobs looking pretty chipper (although he didn't stay on stage long): the costs of things were a shock.

I've been pretty down on Apple for the last year or so, I admit. Personally, it might be good business, but putting Apple Store staff through the mill to mould them into scarily robotic clones of the Apple Way seems unnecessary and Big Brotherish, to me.
I was attracted to Apple back in 1989 not just because the Mac experience was user-, rather than IT guy-, focussed. But I was also attracted because it was a maverick, and I've always liked outsiders.

Apple is still an outsider, technically speaking - with only around 10 per cent or so of the PC market in the developed world (or two per cent if you listen to the more rabid of detractors), either way, this is hardly mainstream, despite impressive growth and profit figures and despite people mouthing off about what a monopoly it is. This charge is patently ridiculous.

Avaricious I agree with. It seems that every decision Apple has handed down, every action that comes through has only one guiding principle: profit. And all the while Apple's capitalisation has grown, like the astronomical wages of its top managers, while users pay a premium to use Apple stuff.

Conditions in the Asian factories Apple employs bear examination. On the one hand, Apple appears to be part of the Western Capitalist phenomenon driving underpaid and overworked Chinese workers to distress and even suicide to create the quality equipment at the cheapest possible price that Western citizens demand.

On the other hand, Apple is creaming off profits that make Dell, Compaq, Microsoft and the others squirm in fascinated frustration.

Apple used to go out of the way to help educators, developers and even magazines to spread the word - to evangelise and to create. Nowadays, Apple is so hard, and so down, on the people who try and make a living from the brand - including its own approved resellers and anyone else, including those who have the temerity to try and run events that promote the brand - it has been acting increasingly like the worst and most arrogant of the massive US firms it used to openly be the alternative to.

Hence my surprise at some of the latest news: Lion, the new OS for Macintosh, to be available for only NZ$39? Good Lord! Snow Leopard in a box was retailing for $60, and the Family Pack five-user version for $101. I already thought this was pretty reasonable.

Dare I point out that Windows 7 Home Premium is $299? That is three licences, though, and that's a 'special' price, according to Microsoft's NZ website.

OS X Lion has more than 250 new features - Apple has posted a list.

Cult of Mac lists 26 of the standouts.

In addition, Apple has just announced it will be releasing OS X Lion Server in July for US$49 (currently about NZ$60) on the Mac App Store. Lion Server includes iPad File Sharing, Push Notifications, Wiki Server 3, iCal Server 3, Mail Server 3 and Xsan.

But hang on - Snow Leopard Server was $998. That's $998. $998.

Also, for years, I have been paying around $140 annually for a MobileMe subscription. This has always worked for me, as I have used many of its features, which are all very handy and effective. However, I have always found it difficult to recommend to anyone else who might only use a subset.

For example, $140 a year is simply too much just to host a website. 20GB of space is impressive, and being able to use your included iWeb application to build a beautiful site is an absolute joy that anyone can partake of, but if that's all you want MobileMe for, there are far cheaper solutions.

But they are harder to use and you don't have the same power, ease and control that iWeb, combined with MobileMe, gives you - and I have tried many. There are people I've wanted to show this too, who would really benefit, but it's simply not viable for the annual fee if that's the only MobileMe service they'd use.

But iCloud is replacing it ... free. Free? Again, good Lord!

So what do you get? The former MobileMe services of Contacts, Calendar and Mail are all completely re-architected for iCloud. You can share calendars with others (which I have been doing with MobileMe), and the (ad-free) push Mail account is hosted at me.com. Inbox and mailboxes are kept up-to-date across all iOS devices and computers you might own.

The App Store and iBookstore will download purchased iOS apps and books to all the Apple devices you have, and not just the one they were purchased on. In addition, the App Store and iBookstore will let you see your purchase history. Simply tapping the iCloud icon will download any apps and books to any iOS device (up to 10) at no additional cost.

Whaaat?!

But there's more - iCloud Backup will automatically and securely back up iOS devices to iCloud daily over Wi-Fi when you charge your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

That's write - plug one into a power point, and it will back up over your wireless network. Clever.

Backed up content includes purchased music, apps and books, Camera Roll (photos and videos), device settings and app data. If you replace your iOS device, just enter your Apple ID and password during setup and iCloud will restore it your new device.

This was another MobileMe service which proved an absolute godsend for me in the past.

iCloud Storage will, supposedly, store all documents created using iCloud Storage APIs seamlessly, and automatically push them to all your devices. When you change a document on any device, iCloud will automatically push the changes to all your devices. (Apple's latest versions of the iOS apps Pages, Numbers and Keynote already take advantage of iCloud Storage.)

Users get up to 5GB of free storage for their mail, documents and backup. The storage for music, apps and books purchased from Apple, and the storage required by Photo Stream, does not count towards this 5GB total. Users will be able to buy more storage - details will be announced when iCloud ships in about three months.

iCloud's Photo Stream service will automatically upload photos you take or import on any of your devices - but then it will wirelessly push them to all your devices and Macs.

This 'Photo Stream' is built into the photo apps on all iOS devices, and it will be in iPhoto on Macs in Lion - and it even supports PCs, with images saved to the Pictures folder on a PC).

iTunes in the Cloud gets some love, too. It will let you download your previously purchased iTunes music to all your iOS devices at no additional cost, and new music purchases can be downloaded automatically to all your devices.

Apple is releasing a free beta version of iTunes in the Cloud for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users running iOS 4.3. iTunes in the Cloud will support all iPhones that iOS 5 supports this fall.

iTunes 10.3 is available for download now - here.

That's a lot of power for your money, and a lot of added benefit from being an Apple user.

- Mark Webster mac-nz.com